Killing Blow, by Kevin Ryan
I'm sure I've talked about (or at least thought about) the fractal nature of some "franchise fiction", these written-for-hire books set in licensed worlds like Star Wars and Star Trek. They can be PAINFUL, cardboard rearrangements of the old standby favorites, with a few disposable characters arriving and vanishing.
Ryan doesn' t to that - instead he shows how fractal the story line can be, that is, how many twists and turns you can fit into a heretofore finite space of time. Using the "known" facts, i.e. episodes from the original series, in these three books (these were volumes 2 and 3) he creates a great story. A principled, but mislead Klingon, masquerading as human, slowly discovers the truth about humans... and the lies he is acting on. Really a fun story, and well done (even if a little awkwardly edited by Pocket books).
The Wailing Wind, by Tony Hillerman
After disappointing books, Hillerman is back to a very good tale about murder and mystery. And romance, too.... slow, slow slloooooow romance. But maybe a glimmer of hope for poor Jim Chee.
